Archive

CONTACT US

If you want to contact us with any questions or query's then please feel free to drop us a line at the below email address:

noodlesthemonkeyboy@gmail.com

How we rate the holds

It's simple, we rate the holds on the below area's, we look at every criteria. We use the hold(s) in as many different ways as we can and we then sit back have a lovely cup of tea and chat about them. We also go digging about the company's website, talk to the people that work there and see what they're all about, the areas we look at are below:

TEXTURE
Can you climb on these holds for prolonged periods of time with out shredding your hands and making your finger tips bleed? Are they easy to clean? Do we think that you want to hold onto these?

PRICE
We'll give you the price and number of holds in the set... no bolts, no shipping and no taxes (If applicable)

COLOR
This is personal taste, but we'll look at the colors of the holds we have and whats available. No-one wants to climb on dull brown holds all the time (Do they?) We'll look at the colors we have and what the manufacturer offers in way of colors...

VERSATILITY
Can the holds be used in any number of different ways? Can you put them on the roof? Are they good on just vertical or slightly overhanging walls? Can you turn them upside down and still use them? We have symbols and we'll tell you how we used them, via video and pictures, how steep of a wall can you use them on?? We'll find out! We'll look at what the manufacturer says, just to make sure you're not buying crimps and then trying to use them on a roof!!

QUALITY
Are the holds simply made well? Do they lay flush to the wall? Is the material that they're using of a good quality? Would you want to have this on your wall? Are the bolt placements straight, are the holds going to tweak out your fingers... we'll make sure you get nice top quality holds

SHIPPING
How were the holds shipped? Was the packing any good... did the postman play hockey with the box again??? If there are any breaks or chips to anything we'll tell you

PRO's & CON's
At the end of every review there will be the pro's and con's of the hold, we will point out the obvious flaws and any problems we've had with the holds i.e: are there sharp edges, is the overall finishing ok etc...

What you have to remember is that myself or Chris aren't pro-route setters, we set for ourselves and our friends, we also set with these holds on a monthly basis at a commercial gym... we take the holds in, set and then 4 weeks later we take them back; this way we see how the holds hold up to day to day abuse.

Our ratings are based upon whether or not we think the holds are good and if we think they should be brought by you the end consumer. Remember an opinion is a personal thing, we hope to give you the end user enough information so that you can make a informed decision before you spend your hard earned cash... it's important, no-one likes crap holds!!

We value your feedback, so please post comments, if you disagree with what we say then say so!

The wall

The current wall is a marvel of some big bolts and lots of long screws... here it is in all it's glory!

During construction: April 08

You'll notice that my dad stole my new Franklin shirt in the above photo

Here's the wall when it was finished... two weeks of blood sweat and tears :)June 08: We like to build features from time to time!Xmas 08; new 45 degree is added to the existing structure

Here's our old wall, it was pretty big. The old wall, nice and tall and 8ft wide.. There was plenty of room to set long problems an more than enough height for long dynos :)






The first Montreal wall... the first of many... considering it was in a 3 1/2 apartment downtown it was pretty kickass

Who are we?

Simply put we're a few people, I have a wall in my house, therefore people come and climb. The wall gets bigger and reset every few weeks... There are a few main protagonists that will give their opinion on the holds and the grades that they climb vary from 5.7 to 5.12, normally I'd not worry about having just my views up here, but as climbing is such a personal experience and everyone climbs a different way I felt it best to have more than one person contribute.

Let me introduce the gang:

Me.. Noodles.. or Jeremy

I've been climbing for 23 years, taught climbing for 5 and have had the opportunity of getting outside more than most, these days I'm bound to a desk so I only get to play outside at the weekends. Thus far I've been luck enough to get to Fontainebleau, the South of France, Germany, Spain and Portugal and all over the US to climb... I'm currently living in Canada, but travel home (to the UK) to climb from time to time.

I buy too many climbing holds and have reached the lofty grade of 5.11 inside, hence the indoor wall at home for training. I'm currently pulling 5.10 outside :P

I am a complete hold freak, love em, can't get enough of them. I don't shape, I just climb, there's an art to climbing holds and I'm in awe of the people that make them. There are A LOT of holds on the market and people need to know what to buy, that's why I'm here and that's what i'll do!

Chris...

Canadian born and bred, has been outside waaay too much this year and climbs too much generally. He'll be found at my house climbing or the gym climbing if he doesn't pick up the phone.

Chris is the ying to ClimbingHoldReviews yang... I think of an idea and then he'll tell me I'm nuts; it's good to have someone that keeps you in check. Chris is climbing 5.12's and screaming all the way, and you think we're joking about the screaming!! We're not!


Seb...

We got a wide angle lens... here's Seb! Sometimes you need someone to see if a wall is going to hold up to all of the abuse... Seb is that abuse, he can and will destroy things in a random fashion, just step back and see if it'll stay in one piece.

Seb is getting better and better the more he climbs 5.10's now and is getting into 5.11's slowly but surely. He makes infrequent trips to CHR to see what's new and then will amaze us by climbing a route first time that we've been playing with for hours!!

Eve...

Despite his feminie looks Chris isn't the only girl that climbs regularly on the holds we test!! There's Eve as well :) Eve wants to be outside more than inside, but with cold Canadian winters she really has no choice, if she's not in the lab killing things in new and interesting ways (for science) she'll be climbing something, probably with one of us... she maybe small but she's strong

Jacky...

So we've had the good, the bad and the Seb.. meet Jacky. Part mechanic, part student... throw in a modelling contact and some monkey genes and this is what you'll end up with!!!



Mike aka Action Jackson aka the new guy from Toronto

Action approached CHR because of his problematic climbing shoe fetish. After buying every climbing shoe he could get his hands on his family launched and intervention and now he isn't allowed to buy anymore shores until his stock pile is depleted. He now he heads up our climbing shoe test blog (http://climbingshoetests.blogspot.com/) in hopes of getting cheap gear under the table to feed his habit. His preference is bouldering, but is know to replace the mat with a rope on occasion. There was mention of V8 attempts in his near future.